Tuesday, April 26, 2011

No Longer A Smelly Bag Lady Assange Makes Best Dressed List

By Jerry Smith Apr 26 2011
assangewatch.blogspot.com

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been named one of the 20 best dressed men in the world by French magazine Le Figaro Madame.

Some of the others joining Assange on that list include U.S. President Barack Obama, Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth, and TV Chef Jamie Oliver.
In a paragraph from Bill Keller's 'Dealing With Assange and the WikiLeaks Secrets', an article he wrote for the New York Times earlier this year, Keller wrote:

"On the fourth day of the London meeting, Assange slouched into The Guardian office, a day late. (Eric) Schmitt took his first measure of the man who would be a large presence in our lives. 'He’s tall — probably 6-foot-2 or 6-3 — and lanky, with pale skin, gray eyes and a shock of white hair that seizes your attention,' Schmitt wrote to me later. 'He was alert but disheveled, like a bag lady walking in off the street, wearing a dingy, light-colored sport coat and cargo pants, dirty white shirt, beat-up sneakers and filthy white socks that collapsed around his ankles. He smelled as if he hadn’t bathed in days.'"

What a difference a little time makes. Assange has gone from being described as a disheveled bag-lady who smelled as if he hadn't bathed in days, to being named one of the 20 best dressed men in the world.

Assange, who is still under house arrest at Ellingham Hall in Norfolk, Britain, will continue to fight being extradited to Sweden at a two day hearing at the High Court in London on July 12 and 13.

Assange has been fighting extradition to Sweden where he has not been charged with anything but is wanted for questioning by the Swedish police about accusations of rape and sexual molestation made against him by Sofia Wilen and Anna Ardin. Assange denies the allegations and says he had consensual sex with the two women.

Assange and his lawyers fear that if he is extradited to Sweden he may then be extradited to the United States, where he could face torture, confinement at Guantanamo Bay, both, or even the death penalty.

Assange has angered the United States with the publishing of leaked embarrassing diplomatic cables, the classified documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the 'Collateral Murder' video.